Transcripts For WRC News4 At 11 20140108

In southeast d. C. , affecting some of the areas most vulnerable residents. Shelters are at capacity, and district officials are rolling out metrobuss to keep people warm. And across the country, millions are still thawing out after the coldest day in decades. News4 at 11 starts now. The extreme cold is shattering records, and its not letting up yet. Tomorrow morning, expect temperatures in the Single Digits again. This unusual weather is taking a toll, straining power grids and creating problems with old underground infrastructure. Its not just here. The entire country is impacted. And some places broke records more than a century old. We begin tonight with doug kammerer. He is in storm center 4 to let us know what we can expect over the next 24 hours. Doug . Doreen, we did set a couple of records towards dulles and bwi too. Well show you what were talking about. This morning, dulles down to 1, shattering the old record of 8. Bwi, more of the same. 3, beating the old record of 8. But this is even more telling here. National airport hit a temperature of 6 degrees. The record is 5. That record has stood for 130 years. We missed it by just one degree. Amazing how cold we were, and were still on the cold side. 15 degrees the current number. The windchill in d. C. , 5 degrees. Back towards the west, the actual temperature 7 in winchester, nine in leesburg and 9 in gaithersburg. If youre hoping the cold air will finally let up, there is some good news for you. The extreme cold, yeah, it will be out of here. By friday, well see chilly conditions, but not quite as cold. And by sunday, were on the mild side of things. Well talk about that mild air coming in. But first, on that chilly friday, we could have some snow to deal with. Well talk about that in just a minute. Thank you, doug. We have a team of reporters covering the impact of this extreme cold in maryland, virginia and the district. First up erika gonzalez. Police are investigating what they believe is the first weatherrelated death. Erika . Reporter doreen, a number of employees in this shopping strip along this area say that they knew this man. They tried to look after him as best they could. They saw him as late as yesterday morning around 6 00 a. M. , found him sleeping outside one of the businesses. Gave him a cup of coffee. And then a couple of hours later, from where im standing, if i bend down, there is sort of a brick retaining wall and then there is a fence here. He was found wedged between these two places. He looked solid. Reporter about 10 00 this morning, joe says he found a homeless man frozen. Lifeless along this fence. Somebody could have done something. It was a puppy or a kitten, somebody would have done something for it. There is no simpler way to say it. Reporter Prince Georges County police say the man may have died as a result of the brutal weather conditions. There is plenty of people out here like this. And we just dont do enough to help them. Reporter employees up and down this stretch of 4700 allentown road say the man had been in the area at least a year. Im told Morningside Police were called to the area yesterday when police say the man was lying in an alley. We give him food. I give him food, hot chocolate, whatever he needed. Reporter at the nearby dunkin donuts, she says she did what she could to take care of him. You dont have to be related to him to care about him is what youre saying . I care because is human being. And at this sub shop. He was good person. He didnt bother nobody. He was a nice person. Reporter Justin Gerard says he saw him just last night, served him a hot meal, and tried to keep him out of the cold as long as possible. Did you know he was homeless . Yes, we did. And thats why we all did what we could to help him out. Fries, food, something to drink, try to keep him in here from the cold. Its a shame what happened to him. Reporter authorities are waiting for the autopsy report to come back in order to declare an official time of death. Erika gonzalez, news4. No School Closings reported for tomorrow, yet but some districts will be starting late. Fairfax county in virginia, Spotsylvania County and Stafford County schools all on a delay. For a complete list of closings, head to nbcwashington. Com. The freezing temperatures are also causing pipes to burst there have been dozens of cases including a nursing home in rockville, where residents were forced to evacuate today. Shomari stone continues our coverage from southeast washington where crews are working to repair another broken water main. Shomari . Reporter good evening. These crews are working very hard out here, and people who live in the Savannah Street Southeast Area are without water right now. This backhoe has been here and it has dug right into the ground. And this hole right here, you can see these d. C. Water crews. They are working vigorously in this cold to replace this broken water main. Lets come back up up here for a second. A lot of folks are telling me they are really happy that these guys are working hard. And right now they are replacing the pipe. Tonight d. C. Water crews are fixing this eightinch main that was installed in the late 1940s there are dozens of broken water mains in our area. Nearly 40 in prince georges and montgomery counties. Take a look at this map, wsse crews have responded to several dozen water mains. Crews repaired some, and tonight theyre still working on others. Officials warn more water mains are expected to break over the next two days. Well, the extreme low temperatures are causing these breaks, and thats why its impacting these mains and causing them to split like they are. Reporter and right now were in the d. C. Water mobile command center. It is so cold outside that the workers come inside here to warm up. They look on this screen, and they can actually see what is going on. So they can get the job done as soon as possible. This evening Montgomery County firefighters rescued nearly 30 elderly people after water leaked into their rockville nursing home. Seeped into the buildings electrical circuit, and cut the power. I think theyre doing a fabulous job. Reporter and in gaithersburg, a pipe burst. Firefighters put up tape, warning people to stay away. Back out here in southeast, these guys are careful in the big chill. What type of potential danger are you facing . Well, were seeing cold exposure, hypothermia. Were seeing the potential for frostbite and other sorts of weatherrelated impacts. Reporter back out here live. You can see this pump right here taking water out of the hole over this. And its real dangerous because you can see the water, but then it gets real slippery over here. And thats why a lot of these guys are coming over here, theyre taking this white stuff and throwing it down so that it prevents them from falling. Live here in southeast d. C. , im shomari stone, news4. More trouble with broken water pipes. This one flooded the arrivals area at Reagan National airport today. The cold weather is being blamed for the problem. Some passengers had to search for their suitcases after the water stopped the baggage carousels. Luggage had to be moved to a different area. Witnesses say it looked like rain falling from the ceiling when that pipe first broke. The cold weather actually saved drivers some money in arlington today. Many of the digital parking meter theres stopped working. They were frozen. As a result, Arlington County police did not enforce parking today. Officials also say the weather was just too cold for the enforcement workers to write tickets. Arlington officials will check all of the meters tomorrow before deciding whether to suspend enforcement for another day. A number of metrobus is part of the solution tonight to help people who are seeking refuge from the cold. The buses are being used as temporary warming shelters. Jackie bensen is live in northwest d. C. With the efforts to help the homeless. Jackie . Reporter doreen, warming buses like this one have been set up throughout the city. Homeless shelters are filled past capacity tonight. At the new home of Central Union mission on massachusetts avenue in northwest, theyre giving thanks for the space that allows extra mattresses to be set up in the event of a hypothermia emergency. In the homeless population, you have a group number that almost refuse to come in. This cold is making folks want to come in. Reporter the mission is funded entirely by private donors. Pastor james lewis says the new location which began operations just before thanksgiving is already filled and 50 extra men are likely to stay here tonight because of the cold. We can accommodate up to 190. Normally, we look to hold, carry 160. Reporter for those who cant or wont go to a shelter, the district has set up warming buses throughout the city. Each metrobus has a portable rest room nearby. City officials tell us there are also overflow warming shelters set up at the banneker, kennedy, and Columbia Heights recreation centers. Live in northwest washington, jackie bensen, news4. Few people across the country have been spared from this brutal cold snap. It was below freezing in each of the 50 states today. In new york, it hasnt been this cold since 1896. Nationwide, the nations crippled transportation by road and by air, leaving thousands of people stranded for days. Schools have been shut down by the hundreds, and businesses have suffered too. Even the deep south is struggling. David culver is at our live desk with new pictures just coming in now from across the country. David . Reporter thats right, doreen. Some of this video is just incredible. It shows just how dangerous and even deadly this cold weather is proving across the nation. We start in vail, colorado. An avalanche there killed a 24yearold man. He happened to be the grandson with one of the men credited with discovering what became the famous Vail Mountain resort. From colorado we head north to minnesota. Keep an eye in the upper righthand corner of the screen. A Traffic Camera caught a car flying off a bridge overpass. This was in a minneapolis suburb. The cause, black ice. The woman behind the wheel, she is okay. But this was one of nearly 150 crashes police there responded to tonight. And some wet problems for American Airlines passengers. This happened at 30,000 feet. The extreme cold caused a pipe on the plane to burst after it took off from dallas. Water from the bathroom poured into the cabin. That plane, which was headed to baltimore, made an Emergency Landing in arkansas. Looking at some of the pictures passengers took. Some of those passengers also ended up soaked. But no one was hurt. And were also keeping our tabs on parts of the country where conditions, if you can believe it or not, could even get worse. Right here, this is a live look at buffalo, new york. A blizzard warning now in effect. Thats going to continue until 6 00 tomorrow morning. Thats the very latest from the live desk. Doreen, well send it back to you. Not letting go of us yet. Thank you, david. Be sure to stay with news4 on air and online for the cold conditions in your neighborhood. You can get updates any time by following us on facebook and twitter. Coming up, a developing story in sports as another big name gets ready to interview with the redskins. See who was here for a late night dinner to try to win the head coaching job. Plus, new details after a deadly Helicopter Crash involving u. S. Service members overseas, and a vandal a familiar name in the running for the head coaching job for the redskins. Diana russini broke the story on twitter. Reporter earlier confirmed that jay gruden had dinner with redskins general manager bruce allen in virginia. He is in town to interview for the redskins head coaching job. This is pretty standardized for a candidate to have dinner with the gm or owner before the day of an official interview. This will be coaching candidate number six the redskins have met. With jay gruden is the brother of jon gruden. Jay is in his third year with the bengals and considered by many to be one of the hottest head coaching candidates in the league right now. So gruden also has many ties with people currently in the redskins organization. So how could this help him . Ill have more of that coming up in sports. Thanks, diana. A developing story tonight involving u. S. Service members overseas. Defense officials are trying to figure out what caused a Helicopter Crash that killed four members of the air force. It happened during a Training Mission today on the eastern coast of england. The air force says the helicopter was flying low at the time, but does not know why it crashed. Families are upset tonight over vandalism at a beltsville cemetery. Somebody pushed over more than a dozen headstones at the de la salle cemetery, causing about 35,000 in damage. It happened over the past week. One of the headstones dates back to the 1930s. The vandal also broke a hand off of one of the statues. The cemetery is the final resting place for members of the Christian Brothers and parishioners of a nearby church. Police say theyre still looking for a suspect. Tonight, a United States congressman is back to work on capitol hill for the First Time Since pleading guilty to a cocaine charge. Florida republican congressman tray raidle apologized during a meeting with reporters at his office. He also says he let down the country, his constituents and his family. He was released from rehab last month after being arrested in Dupont Circle in november. This eerie picture shot from the air says it all. The whole city encased in ice, and the shores of Lake Michigan frozen over. At one point the windchill made it feel like negative 45 degrees. But things should get better tomorrow. Chicago Public Schools will be back open. The first time kids will be in school since before christmas. And this might shock you. Hell has just frozen over. What . Yes, thats right. The town of hell, michigan, its west of detroit. The temperatures today was a record negative 4 degrees. The town of just 600 people has quite a bit of snow too. Even a snowplow got stuck. You know its bad when hell freezes over, doug. A lot of stuff starts happening. You say that all the time. I tell you what. How cold are we going to get tonight . Were going to get cold tonight. Not nearly as cold as last night. Were not going to set any records across the area tonight. Were not talking temperatures below zero, but still temperatures in the Single Digits. Now, you normally need temperatures below zero for this to happen. You can take boiling water, throw it into the air, and what do you get . You actually get little tiny ice crystals, or even a little bit of snow directly from that boiling water. It does go directly from water to almost like a steam. But its ice crystals that are developing. Almost a little bit of a cloud. Kind of a cool thing. I love it in slow motion here. Watch, pretty cool. Anyway, cool stuff. Right now temperature 15 that was my anyway. Take a look at the winds. Northwest at 7 Miles Per Hour. That still gives awes little bit of a windchill. 5 at the airport. And look at the numbers. Down to 7. Right now in winchester, 12 in culpepper. 9 in gaithersburg. Camp springs coming in at 12 degrees. You add in that little bit of wind, even a 5 to 10 Miles Per Hour wind, you get windchill around 1 00 in baltimore. 4 in camp springs. 2 below zero back towards martinsburg and 12 down towards culpepper. Thats why we still have the windchill advisory. Its through midnight to areas west of the blue ridge. Towards hagerstown, where we are seeing those numbers dip down below zero. Well continue to see that for the next few hours. Thats really about it, though. Were not talking about those 20 and 30 below like we saw last night. Incredibly cold night last night and incredibly cold day today. But its starting to ease just a little. We have clear skies that will allow temperatures to cool once again as we move on through the night tonight. And were going to start off very cold tomorrow. Tomorrow, will be an incredibly cold morning. But by tomorrow afternoon, the cold eases just a little bit. Comes a little bit smaller with some sunshine. Tomorrow actually a pretty nice afternoon, compared to today. I think temperatures get up close to the upper 20s to around 30 degrees. Were still cold, but not quite as cold as today. Then on thursday, cool. Well call it cool as temperatures move into the 30s. Some sunshine, but then on friday, i think were going to be cool enough to start that were going to see some frozen precipitation move. In its going to fall in the form of snow, maybe a mixture of rain and snow coming up early friday morning. Right now im not anticipating any accumulation. But this is something were going to watch. I do think that when this finally moves through, it will be warm enough that this should change over to rain. But some of you may see a little light snow to start the day on friday. Tomorrow morning, still cold. Calm winds. Temperatures 3 in the coldest areas to about 11 in the city. Winds out of the west at 5 to 10 Miles Per Hour. And as we move through the next couple of days, a progressive trend here. You can see those numbers going up. 38 on thursday. 40 on friday with that early mix. 54 on saturday. Right now were calling for rain almost all day saturday. It may leak into sunday. Right now im trying to keep sunday dry with a high of 52. And then early next week, temperatures above average. So, yes, we have been in the freezer for sure. But it looks like we are going to get out of it fairly quickly. And there is some nice weather to come before the cold air moves back in. Thats not going to happen for a while, though. So enjoy it while you. My chair is a little too high. Just glad to see were headed in the right direction. Exactly. Thank you, doug. Coming up in sports, more on coming up in sports, more on the redskinsoh earch for a new progressoh oh oh oh oh what do you know . Oh bacon . Oh oh oh [ female announcer ] with 40 delicious progresso soups at 100 calories or less, there are plenty of reasons people are saying progressoh share your story for a chance to win a progressoh makeover in hollywood. Go to progresso. Com to enter. This is the xfinity sports desk, brought to you by xfinity, your home for the most live sports. Lots of candidates. This one is a hot prospect, though. Im trying to get a deja to how much people really care about this. And i think about it when im reporting it. On twitter, this stuff goes wild. People love to hear who the general manager is meeting with. Im not going to reveal where they had dinner. No, no. I cant reveal my sources, those lovely people over there in reston. The redskins coaching search was a marathon. They just crossed mile 13. Halfway through the list. Kicking off at dinner tonight in reston, jay gruden met with redskins gm bruce allen and a host of others. Gruden is currently in his third season as bengals offensive coordinator. But the 46yearold what had many ties to the redskins. While coaching with his brother john in tampa bay, gruden worked under former bucs and current skins gm bruce allen. He also coached with Raheem Morris while in tampa bay. Morris is still on the redskins staff. Another defensive coordinator, jim haslet worked with gruden. So lots of connections there. Well see what happens tomorrow when he officially interviews. They say there is no place like home. But for the wizards, home aint so sweet. So on the road they went and they found something they misplaced for a bit. They found a win. Looking to snap a threegame skid, taking on the bobcats. Early on, whiz down one. John wall looking to drive. Zips a pass. Lays that right in there. 18 points for gortat. He thought he was going to be benched the last few games because he was playing so poorly. Whiz up 4745. Trevor booker coming up with the steal. Slams that one home. Wizards take a fourpoint lead. A little over a minute now. Walt gortat here cant handle it, though. Shot clock winding down. Throws it up. No way. He drains that. 17 points in a game. Wizards starting to run away with it. Later, bradley beal. And beal pulls this up. Knocks it down. Sweet. Team high 21 for him. 170 run for the wizards in the third. They win it, 9783. A great win for them. Virginia tech all dressed up to welcome in syracuse. Early on, syracuse couldnt get it done on defense here. Check out this stuff. Jeremy grant coming up big with the block. Grant also had 12 points and ten boards. Lets go to the second half. Hokies trying to get it in. Pass inside. Gets to cj barksdale. 12 points for him. Hokies within six. But starts to run away with it. Cj fair, just ready for this one. Just slams it, throwing it down. Game high 17 for him. Syracuse beats virginia tech, 7252. Big win for them tonight. Im thinking it was steak house. Was it i dont think the nfl guys go for sushi. [ superfan ] were hitting the road to help america discover the new helper. Youve got to try this sweet sour chicken helper. I didnt know they made chicken. Crunchy taco or four cheese lasagna . Can i get another one of those actually . [ superfan ] hey, america, were here to help. Tomato florentine soup, it took a little time to get it just right. [ ding ] but finally, it happened. Perfection. At progresso, weve got a passion for quality, because youve got a passion for taste. What else are you going to do when its this cold . An illinois man is showing off his latest snow sculpture. After 25 years of special creations, a plain snowman with a carrot nose, thats not going to cut it. This time freddie built two smurfs on a sofa, waving to the people driving by. People make it a point to drive by his house every time there is a snowstorm. Over the years he has built barney the dinosaur, the entire peanuts gang, and a lifesized motorcycle too. That looks like smurf and smurfette. Its so cold their skin turned blue. Are we going to be building those friday . You know, we need snow to get that. And were not going to get it any time soon. Still cold, calm wins winds tomorrow. Starting off between 3 00 and 11 00. The kids tomorrow, make sure you bundle them up. The next couple of days, i did mention a slight chance of snow on friday, but it will not be measurable. 40 in the afternoon. 54 on saturday. Say goodbye to the cold and so announcer its the tonight show with jay leno, featuring rickey minor and the tonight show band. Tonight, jay welcomes from the new movie lone survivor, mark wahlberg. From the secret life of walter mitty, actress kathryn hahn, the music of salaam remi featuring akon and products for a better you. And now, jay leno [ cheers and applause ] [ cheers and applause ] jay how are you . How are you doing . Hey thank you very much welcome to the tonight show thank you very much. And once again, happy new year. Are you all having a good new year so far . [